


everyone hail to the pumpkin king

by emmerrr



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Halloween, M/M, Pumpkins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2019-10-23
Packaged: 2020-12-31 18:17:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21150098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmerrr/pseuds/emmerrr
Summary: “It’s Halloween, Neil, there’s gonna be trick or treaters.”“Oh yeah, I forgot about that. What should I get?”“Just get like a couple of big mixed bags of candy, there’ll be loads—actually you know what, I’ll come with you. I don’t trust you not to get, like, fruit or something instead, and we are not being that house,” Nicky said.





	everyone hail to the pumpkin king

**Author's Note:**

> i got a prompt which said: Pumpkin carving fic? Neil being clueless, Nicky being over-enthusiastic, and Andrew the surprisingly (or not so much) expert carver. Bonus if Aaron is struck by nostalgia and participates too.

It was a Saturday morning at the house in Columbia, and Neil was the first one up. He left Andrew fast asleep in bed and padded down to the kitchen, snores from the living room drifting through from where Kevin lay passed out on the sofa.

Last night had been Eden Twilight’s annual Halloween costume bash, and everyone was bound to be hungover when they all dragged themselves out of bed.

Neil, for his part, felt great if a little tired. He’d only had two shots that had seemed more sweet than they were alcoholic, and had stuck to water for the rest of the night. There was something about everyone being in costume and thus harder to recognise in a crowd that had made him want to keep a clearer head.

He put a pot of coffee on and rubbed at his eyes. He spotted remnants of smudged black eyeliner on his hand when he dropped it, leftover from the night before. Nicky had insisted he needed it and so Andrew put it on for him; he’d sat still and felt Andrew’s soft breath against his cheek as he’d leaned close to carefully apply it. 

Nicky had picked out their costumes, and as no one had wanted to go with him, they were stuck with what he brought back for them and were absolutely not allowed to complain. Neil had gotten off lightly as a pirate; Andrew and Aaron had to go as the Mario brothers. Although it had to be said, Andrew made a very fetching Luigi. (“You should grow a moustache,” Neil said with a smirk. “You’re going to eat those words,” Andrew deadpanned back.) Kevin had ended up with an Indiana Jones costume that Neil thought he was secretly pleased with, and Nicky went as Harry Potter but made the costume ‘sexy’ by tearing the pants to make shorts and tying the shirt in a crop top. (Aaron: “That is the _worst _thing I’ve ever seen.” Nicky: “Thanks!”)

The coffee pot gurgled into life and brought Neil out of his thoughts. He set out five mugs for when it was done and headed over to the fridge to see what he could scrounge together.

He got out eggs, cheese and bacon, and was just on the hunt for some bread when he heard movement from down the hall. A few seconds later, Nicky stumbled into the kitchen, wincing at the sunlight streaming in through the window.

“Wow, can the sun just like…fuck off, actually,” he mumbled, and sat down at the table.

Neil poured him some coffee and set the mug in front of him. Nicky looked up and offered him his best approximation of a smile.

“You’re a lifesaver. Is there breakfast?”

“There will be soon.”

“How soon? Because I don’t wanna alarm you, but I think I’m actually dying.”

“In like fifteen minutes,” Neil said. “Think you’ll make it that long?”

“I’ll try,” Nicky said solemnly, then took a big gulp of coffee. “Fuck _me, _that’s good shit.”

Neil set about cracking eggs and slicing bread, and with each sip of coffee, Nicky came back to life a little bit more, gradually getting chattier and more animated the emptier his mug got.

He was just in the middle of filling Neil in on his Christmas plans (Germany with Erik) when Kevin stomped into the kitchen without saying a word. He wrenched open the fridge and started glugging down orange juice straight from the carton.

“Kevin, c’mon, get a glass,” Nicky chastised, but Kevin held up a finger until he was done.

He set it back down with a satisfied gasp. “Ahh, that’s _so _much better.” He grinned at the other two. “Gooooood mornin’.”

Neil bit down on a laugh. “Morning, Kevin. Coffee?”

_“Fuck_ yes.” He pulled out the seat next to Nicky’s, noisily dragging the chair across the floor as he did so, before sitting down and gratefully accepting the coffee Neil passed to him. He draped his arm around Nicky and rested his head on his shoulder.

Nicky smiled fondly and shook his head. “Why are _you_ so chipper this morning?”

“I think he’s still just a little bit drunk,” Neil said.

_“You’re_ still drunk,” Kevin retorted. He lifted his head. “I’m staaaaarving, can we go to McDonald’s?”

Nicky gasped. “I cannot _believe _you just suggested that.”

“I want a milkshake.”

“You do not, you said they taste like potatoes.”

“They _do, _they’re _made _from potatoes.”

“What the fuck are you on about?”

Kevin frowned. “I’m sure I read that somewhere.”

“That’s a myth,” Neil interjected.

“…Well they still _taste _like potatoes.”

“Okay, well why would you even want one then? Y’know what, never mind. No, you can’t have McDonald’s because Neil’s making us breakfast.”

Kevin sat back sullenly and crossed his arms, rolling his eyes. “Fine, _Mom.”_

Aaron and Andrew both appeared in the doorway before Nicky got out a retort.

“Why is everybody yelling?” Aaron croaked out. He looked like death warmed over, and his Mario moustache was sticking to his cheek. Neil didn’t think he’d noticed. “It’s like six ‘o’ clock, why are you even all _awake?”_

“It’s ten-thirty actually,” Neil said. “I made coffee.”

Andrew made a beeline for it, pouring it into his mug and adding plenty of sugar. Neil smiled at him. “Good morning.”

Andrew took a big sip. “It is now.”

The twins joined Nicky and Kevin at the kitchen table while Neil finished up cooking breakfast, and once they’d all eaten, everyone seemed to feel considerably more human, with the exception of Kevin whose leftover drunkenness was now wearing off. Neil made him drink two big glasses of water and then sent him back to bed to sleep it off.

Aaron and Nicky both went off to shower and change, and Andrew and Neil cleaned up the kitchen.

“What time are we heading back to campus?” Neil asked as Andrew handed him a glass to dry.

“Doesn’t really matter,” Andrew said with a shrug. “There’s no rush.”

This was true; it was Saturday, and they had no weekend practices for once. Neil had some homework for Monday, but nothing that couldn’t wait until tomorrow.

Nicky wandered back in, fresh from his shower. “Kevin’s like, dead to the world. So shotgun not waking him up when we leave.”

Neil snorted. “Aaron can do it.”

“Or we could just stay here,” Andrew said.

Nicky’s face lit up. “Can we? I so can’t be bothered to go back to campus today.”

Andrew looked at Neil in question, and Neil shrugged. “Works for me. I can go get some food for later.”

“Get some candy, too,” Nicky said. Neil raised an eyebrow. “It’s Halloween, Neil, there’s gonna be trick or treaters.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that. What should I get?”

“Just get like a couple of big mixed bags of candy, there’ll be loads—actually you know what, I’ll come with you. I don’t trust you not to get, like, fruit or something instead, and we are _not _being that house,” Nicky said. “I’m gonna go get my shoes.”

He disappeared out into the hall and Neil put down his tea towel and patted his pocket to make sure his keys were still in there. He turned to Andrew. “You want anything?”

“Ice cream,” Andrew said, and kissed Neil quickly before Nicky came back, shoes and jacket on.

“Come _on, _Neil, or all the good stuff will be gone!” 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming.”

* * *

“I just have one question,” Kevin said when they got back. “Why do you have so many pumpkins?”

“Ask Nicky,” Neil said. They had five big ones, and several miniature ones. Neil had said it was excessive, and Nicky had told him to shut up. So that was where they were at.

“Because,” Nicky said, pushing one of the larger pumpkins into Kevin’s arms, “they were on sale, and we have no decorations outside for the trick or treaters. So we’re gonna carve them so that we’re not the most boring house on the street.”

“Do we have to?” Aaron asked.

“Yes.”

“What do we do with all the pumpkin…guts?”

“Oh you know,” Nicky said airily. “Pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup…the list is endless.”

“You literally only mentioned two things,” Kevin pointed out.

Nicky waved this concern away. They set up all of the pumpkins on the kitchen table. Everyone looked at them silently.

“What’s the best way to do this, anyway?” Neil asked.

“Oh, Neil, have you never carved a pumpkin before?”

There was sympathy in Nicky’s eyes as he asked this, and Neil felt a spike of irritation. Some of his teammates had a tendency to do this, to look at him like he was a sad, clueless baby who’d missed out on so many basic childhood experiences. He knew they meant well, but it had gotten old pretty quickly. They didn’t realise how infantilizing it was.

“Did me and my mother, during eight years on the run, find the time to stop and carve a pumpkin and set it out in front of our non-existent home for our non-existent trick or treaters, you mean?” he said. “No, not really.”

Next to him, Andrew smiled, just a little bit. Nicky opened his mouth and then thought the better of it and closed it again. “Alright, point taken, sorry.”

It was possible Neil _had _done this before, of course, but if it had then he was much too young to remember. He had vague recollections of trick or treating, but his father had stopped allowing him to go when he was around seven or so, just in case he said something he shouldn’t.

“Anyway,” Nicky was saying, “you basically cut a circle around the stalk then pull it off like a lid and scoop out all the insides—”

“No, cut from the bottom,” Andrew interrupted. “It’ll have better structural integrity if you do it that way.”

The whole table stared. Andrew shrugged. “What? _I’ve _carved a pumpkin before.”

Nicky clapped his hands together. “Whatever. Everybody just grab a knife and do whatever the hell you want.”

They used zip-lock bags to put all of the usable pumpkin flesh into. Neil figured they’d give it all to Abby; no doubt she’d know what to do with it all. 

Not being too sure on what he was doing, Neil started on one of the small pumpkins. He decided to do Jack Skellington’s face from The Nightmare Before Christmas, because the design seemed simple enough in theory.

In _practice, _however, it was an entirely different story.

“Neil,” Kevin said, looking up from his own perfectly competent ghostly faced design, “what _is _that.”

“It’s _you,” _Neil said bitterly, annoyed that he wasn’t magically amazing at this.

“Good one,” Kevin said.

Andrew picked up Neil’s sorry little pumpkin, whipped out a knife and quickly made an adjustment. He put it back on the table where Kevin could see it; he’d added a perfect little chess piece, a queen, to the pumpkin’s cheek.

“It’s you _now,” _he said.

“What the hell, Andrew, that’s incredible,” Kevin said, picking it up to look.

“Oh, so we’re _surprised_ the guy who walks around with blades up his sleeves is good with knives?” Aaron said sarcastically.

Aaron had made a decent attempt at a skull and crossbones on his pumpkin, and Nicky’s was a basic sort of creepy face, but enthusiastically done with lots of sharp teeth and impressively expressive eyebrows.

Andrew, when he had finished, had the best one hands down. He’d used one of the smaller pumpkins (with an appropriately horrified face) and wedged it in the mouth of his big pumpkin, making it look like it was biting down on it. The detail he managed to put in made it genuinely creepy to behold, and Neil took one look and abandoned his own second attempt.

“You finish it,” he said, and Andrew managed to turn it into an owl.

By the time they were finished, all in all they had an impressive looking selection. Nicky took them all outside and lined them up on the little path leading to the front door.

Kevin and Aaron soon headed into the kitchen to make some dinner, and when the kids started showing up, to everyone’s surprise, Andrew volunteered to be resident candy giver-outer. At least up until Kevin realised that for every piece of candy he gave out, he was pocketing one for himself. 

Nicky took over, and Andrew took his seat on the sofa next to Neil, draping a blanket over the both of them.

“How much did you get?” Neil asked with a smile.

Andrew patted the front pocket of his hoodie which made a satisfying rustling sound. “Enough. What are we watching?”

“Hocus Pocus. Aaron put it on.”

“Perfect,” Andrew said. “Turn it up.”

Neil obliged, then tossed the remote aside and leaned his head on Andrew’s shoulder. The sounds of the movie as well as the intermittent “TRICK OR TREAT” when kids showed up at the door carried on in the background, and Neil thought that perhaps it didn’t matter that he didn’t have many childhood Halloween memories.

He had _this _one, and he’d always remember it.


End file.
